Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The US and the world are gripped by a deepening economic depression. There is no recovery and no automatic business cycle which will revive the economy. This bottomless depression will worsen until policies are reformed. The depression results from deregulated and globalized financial speculation, especially the $1.5 quadrillion world derivatives bubble. The US industrial base has been gutted, and the US standard of living has fallen by almost two thirds over the last four decades. We must reverse this trend of speculation, de-industrialization, and immiseration. Current policy bails out bankers, but harms working people, industrial producers, farmers, and small business. We must defend civil society and democratic institutions from the effects of high unemployment and economic breakdown. We therefore demand:

1.Measures to reduce speculation and minimize the burden of fictitious capital: End all bailouts of banks and financial institutions. Claw back the TARP and other public money given or lent to financiers. Abolish the notion of too big to fail; JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Wells Fargo and other Wall Street zombie banks are insolvent and must be seized by the FDIC for chapter 7 liquidation, with derivatives eliminated by triage. Re-institute the Glass-Steagall firewall to separate banks, brokerages, and insurance. Ban credit default swaps and adjustable rate mortgages. To generate revenue and discourage speculation, levy a 1% Tobin tax (securities transfer tax or trading tax) on all financial transactions including derivatives (futures, options, indices, and over the counter derivatives), stocks, bonds, foreign exchange, and commodities, especially program trading, high-frequency trading, and flash trading. Set up a 15% reserve requirement for all OTC derivatives. Use Tobin tax revenue and a revived corporate income tax to provide immediate tax relief to individuals, families, the self-employed, and small business by increasing personal exemptions and standard deductions. Stop all foreclosures on primary residences, businesses, and farms for five years or the duration of the depression, whichever lasts longer. Set a 10% maximum rate of interest on credit cards and payday loans. Re-regulate commodities markets with 100% margin requirements, position limits, and anti-speculation protections for hedgers and end users to prevent oil and gasoline price spikes. Enforce labor laws and anti-trust laws against monopolies and cartels. Restore individual chapter 11.

2.Measures to nationalize the Federal Reserve, cut federal borrowing, and provide 0% federal credit for production: Seize the Federal Reserve and bring it under the US Treasury as the National Bank of the United States, no longer the preserve of unelected and unaccountable cliques of incompetent and predatory bankers. The size of the money supply, interest rates, and approved types of lending must be determined by public laws passed and debated openly, passed by the congress and signed by the president. Stop US government borrowing from zombie banks and foreigners — let the US government function as its own bank. Reverse current policy by instituting 0% federal LENDING with preferential treatment for tangible physical production and manufacturing of goods and commodities, to include industry, agriculture, construction, mining, energy production, transportation, infrastructure building, public works, and scientific research, but not financial services and speculation. Issue successive tranches of $1 trillion as needed to create 30 million union-wage productive jobs and attain full employment for the first time since 1945, reversing the secular decline in the US standard of living. Provide 0% credit to reconvert idle auto and other plants and re-hire unemployed workers to build modern rail, mass transit, farm tractors, and aerospace equipment, including for export. Extend 0% federal credit for production to small businesses like auto and electronics repair shops, dry cleaners, restaurants, tailors, family farms, taxis, and trucking. Maintain commercial credit for retail stores. Create an unlimited rediscount guarantee by the National Bank for public works projects to provide cash to local banks for bills of exchange pertaining to infrastructure and public works. Repatriate the foreign dollar overhang by encouraging China, Japan, and other dollar holders to place orders for US-made capital goods and modern hospitals. Revive the US Export-Import Bank. Set up a 10% tariff to protect domestic re-industrialization. Nationalize and operate GM, Chrysler, CIT, and other needed but insolvent firms as a permanent public sector. Maintain Amtrak and USPS.

3.Measures to re-industrialize, build infrastructure, develop science drivers, create jobs, and restore a high-wage economy: state and local governments and special government agencies modeled on the Tennessee Valley Authority will be prime contractors for an ambitious program of infrastructure and public works subcontracted to the private sector. To deal with collapsing US infrastructure, modernize the US electrical grid and provide low-cost energy with 1,000 fourth generation, pebble bed, high temperature reactors of 1,000 to 2,000 megawatts each. Rebuild the rail system with 50,000 miles of ultra-modern maglev Amtrak rail reaching into every state. Rebuild the entire interstate highway system to 21st century standards. Rebuild drinking water and waste water systems nationwide. Promote canal building and irrigation. For health care, build 1,000 500-bed modern hospitals to meet the minimum Hill-Burton standards of 1946. Train 250,000 doctors over the next decade. The Davis-Bacon Act will mandate union pay scales for all projects. For the farm sector, provide a debt freeze for the duration of the crisis, 0% federal credit for working capital and capital improvements, a ban on foreclosures, and federal price supports at 110% of parity across the board, with farm surpluses being used for a new Food for Peace program to stop world famine and genocide. Working with other interested nations, invest $100 billion each in: biomedical research to cure dread diseases; high energy physics (including lasers) to develop fusion power and beyond; and a multi-decade NASA program of moon-Mars manned exploration, permanent colonization, and industrial production. These science drivers will provide the technological spin-offs to modernize the entire US economy in the same way that the NASA moon shot gave us microchips and computers in the 1960s. These steps will expand and upgrade the national stock of capital goods and enhance the real productivity of US labor. Return the federal budget and foreign trade to surplus in 5 years or less.

4. Measures to defend and expand the social safety net: Restore all cuts; full funding at improved levels for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, jobless benefits, WIC, Head Start, and related programs. Offer Medicare for All to anyone under 65 who wants it at $100 per person per month, with reduced rates for families, students, and the unemployed. Pay for this with Tobin tax revenues and TARP clawback, and by ending the Iraq and Afghan wars. Seek to raise life expectancy by five years for starters. No rationing or death panels; savings can come only by finding cures. Quickly reach a $15 per hour living wage. Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act and affirm the right to organize. Pass card check to promote collective bargaining.

5. Measures to re-launch world trade and promote world recovery: Create a new world monetary system including the euro, the yen, the dollar, and the ruble, plus emerging Arab and Latin American regional currencies, with fixed exchange rates and narrow bands of fluctuation enforced by participating governments. Institute clearing and gold settlement among member states. Replace the IMF with a Multilateral Development Bank to finance world trade and infrastructure. The goal of the system must be to re-launch world trade through exports of high-technology capital goods, especially to sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and the poorer parts of Latin America. Promote a world Marshall Plan of great projects of world infrastructure, including: a Middle East reconstruction and development program; plans for the Ganges-Bramaputra, Indus, Mekong, Amazon, and Nile-Congo river basins; bridge-tunnel combinations to span the Bering Strait, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Straits of Malacca, the Sicilian narrows, and connect Japan to the Asian mainland; second Panama canal and Kra canals; Eurasian silk road, Cape to Cairo/Dakar to Djibouti, Australian coastal, and Inter-American rail projects, and more. American businesses will receive many of these orders, which means American jobs.This program will create 30 million jobs in less than five years. It will end the depression, rebuild the US economy, improve wages and standards of living, re-start productive investment, and attain full employment with increased levels of capital investment per job. Most orders placed under this program will go to US private sector bidders. Because of the vastly increased volume of goods put on the market, inflation will not result.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

After a two month hiatus from Youtube I finally dragged myself out of that apathetic pit we all know so well and put together two intriguing new videos. One of which dealing with Veteran's day and the present reality behind the two wars and the other is a review of the Neo-Retro Handhelds and Game systems that have been popping up these days.

Monday, October 26, 2009

It's a beautiful monday morning here in corporate slave land and I would love to share with you my first impressions of a game I was playing a little of this weekend....... Gothic 3.

The game itself is very well made. It takes a while to get used to the combat but once you get the hang of it your swashbuckling like a mad man. The game starts out with you and your band arriving on the shores of a fantasy-esq land. You seem to walk in on a band of orcs ransacking a town. The boss orc (the albino one) takes one look at you and then BOOM your in combat with people sword fight all around you. It was a good idea to throw you right into the action. After you defeat all the orcs you then begin to literally finish what the orcs had started by pillaging the town yourself. At this point though the town elder doesn't seem to care. So after your done taking grabbing everything that isn't nailed down you follow one of you chums to the rebel camp. The story then goes into this pseudo-Star Wars-ish storyline with rebels, an evil necromancer Xardas (sith lord), Evil orcs (stormtroopers), mercenaries (Bounty Hunters), and bandits. Right now I'm helping the rebels but I noticed that you can gain reputation with numerous factions so the game isn't linear. Yes, your first quest is going to "see the rebel base" but after that is finished you can be friends with whoever you please.

The Good - The game is beautiful - graphics and detail are superb, the music is epic, the character modification (equipment / skill) is easy to learn, and the quests just keep on coming. There is TONS to do in this game.

The Bad - With the exception of using bows and arrows and magic the combat system is very primitive. You can either click rapidly to do fast attacks or you can hold down one of the mouse buttons and release for a more powerful attack. The right mouse button is the parry / quick attack while the left mouse button provides a heavier attack. Also you can hold down the left mouse button to do a devastating blow or hold the right mouse button and the left button to do a thrusting attack which stuns the enemy for a second or two. The biggest problem that I have with it is that some AI are so dumb that you can just do quick attacks on them until they die. That doesn't mean combat is easy. Sometimes they will gang up on you and knock your ass down so fast it will surprise you. It works but its a very odd system.

Edit:

With the newest patch you can change the difficulty level and have alternate AI which makes the game substantially harder.

The Ugly - You NEED a high end machine to play this game. Yes, the game came out in 2006 but that doesn't mean your PC system is going to run it like nothing. Your going to need a good video card to play this. Even with my system as it is plus Gamebooster the game still hiccups a bit. At certain loading areas the game will freeze for a few seconds leaving you crossing your fingers hoping the dam thing didn't crash. Speaking of crashing the game is technically sound. It only crashed once on me and I have no idea what happened.

If you have a good PC and love RPG games.....I would definitely suggest you playing it. You can find the 3-Pack RPG bundle for around $20 dollars. Just this game and Loki alone are worth that much but you get Dungeon lords with the deal as well so it's an incredible buy.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Hello, I am TheCoolinator.....I'm a registered Democrat and a life long enemy of the Republican party. Please do not accuse me of being a right winger. To me, Reality is more important than any political party. Shake off your LEFT vs RIGHT bias and see that both sides are controlled by Wall Street Corporate elites.

Obama racks up list of broken promises

1. 'Sunlight Before Signing'

"When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as the president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it,"

Monday, October 19, 2009

So starts a new week of corporate slavery and one of my most favorite things to do on Monday mornings is give you all a detailed summary of what PC games I bought this weekend.

Before I begin however, let me give you a little back story. A few weekends ago my friend and I visited our local Best Buy to see if there were any new movies or games we could pick up. As I was perusing through the PC game aisle I saw a 3-Pack RPG set which contained Dungeon Lord, Gothic 3, and LOKI. Now I must admit that I'm a big Dreamcatcher fan. They are a wonderful developer of action and adventure titles. I did quite a bit of research on these games in the past and I finally had the chance to pick all of them up at one time. I do think the price was a little high for them however. $20 dollars. I would have been sold at $14.99 but whatever.

When I got home I installed them all but Gothic 3 and Dungeon Lord seem to be very in depth games so I focused my attention solely on LOKI. Now for all you Diablo fans LOKI is literally a Diablo clone. If Blizzard Entertainment would have came out with Diablo 3 a few years back it would have looked exactly like LOKI. That doesn't mean it’s bad, it's actually very well made, the graphics, animation, sound, and voice acting are superb. The game itself (LOKI) like Diablo is pretty straight forward. Pick a hero, move around, talk to quest givers, and bash heads.

The only real problem I have with the game as of yet is the choice of heroes. You get 4 choices, 2 Women and 2 Men and I have to be honest here I really don't care for any of them except the Norse Warrior. The Amazon Shaman girl shows some promise but they just all fall under the "Blah" category in terms of interest. I understand why they did this to make it balanced but they needed to include at least one more Male character just to give it an extra little boost. They seem to be equipped with a multiplayer option but I haven't had the chance to play online with any of them yet. If I could get into the groove of LOKI this could be the Diablo-ish game to get me all warmed up for the soon to be released Diablo 3 game.

Have you guys ever heard of LOKI or the other games? And if so what do you think?

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

My RETROGEN arrived in the mail yesterday and the minute I put my hands on it I started plugging in cartridges to give it a test drive. All of them seem to work fine EXCEPT Castlevania: Bloodlines. Which makes me very sad . The device itself is incredibly light and well made. The screen is a good size, it's not as big as it appears on the box or in pictures, but its a solid 2.8". The buttons are nice. It takes a little while to get used to them because they are set at an angle but they get the job done. I haven't tried TV out yet but I'm sure it works well. The music that comes out of it is slightly off. It's not a big deal really, I actually find it kind of funny.

The only thing that isn't too good about it is the D-Pad which surprised the hell out of me because the D-Pad on the Retrogen "looked" a whole lot better then the GenMobiles one. The D-pad is a big solid silver disc on the left hand side. It works well with platformers and shooter games but is almost impossible to use during a fighting game like Street Fighter II or Samurai showdown. There is also a bit of slowdown that effects certain games. An example of this would be that I get a little slow down in Contra Hardcorps and quite a bit of slowdown in Earthworm Jim. You can barely notice it though so it won't hurt your experience.

Final Words:

The Achilles heel of this portable is the D-pad. Everything else is done very well. The screen is a perfect size and the graphics are clear, the buttons are responsive and spring-y, and the music is OK. If you could overlook the crappy D-pad then I would say pick it up. If not just wait for the GenMobile.

Monday, October 12, 2009

“Water fluoridation is the controlled addition of fluoride to a public water supply to reduce tooth decay. Fluoridated water has fluoride at a level that is effective for preventing cavities; this can occur naturally or by adding fluoride. Fluoridated water operates on tooth surfaces: in the mouth it creates low levels of fluoride in saliva, which reduces the rate at which tooth enamel demineralizes and increases the rate at which it remineralizes in the early stages of cavities. Typically a fluoridated compound is added to drinking water, a process that in the U.S. costs an average of about $0.92 per person-year. Defluoridation is needed when the naturally occurring fluoride level exceeds recommended limits. A 1994 World Health Organization expert committee suggested a level of fluoride from 0.5 to 1.0 mg/L (milligrams per liter), depending on climate. Dental cavities remain a major public health concern in most industrialized countries, affecting 60–90% of schoolchildren and the vast majority of adults, and costing society more to treat than any other disease. Water fluoridation prevents cavities in both children and adults, with studies estimating an 18–40% reduction in cavities when water fluoridation is used by children who already have access to toothpaste and other sources of fluoride. There is no clear evidence of other adverse effects. It is controversial, and opposition to it has been based on ethical, legal, safety, and efficacy grounds."

Sodium Fluoride is considered under the Department of Transportation to be a 6.1 Poison. Like Mercury it causes Neurological harm, nervous system disruption, and organ failure. One of Sodium Fluorides signature traits is causing bone cancer. The effects of Sodium Fluoride on the mind have shown to make animals less active. Lab Rats fed Sodium fluoride did not protect their territory and were less aggressive.

Sodium Fluoride was first used in Soviet Prisoner camps as well as Nazi Germany concentration camps to create a docile atmosphere among the inmates.

I have switched to a Non-Sodium Fluoride brand and I suggest you all do too. Some non-fluoride brands can be found at Mothernature.com by using their search engine.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

In my opinion Painkiller was the closest thing we gamers got to an old school shooter in the last decade. If IDSoftware remade Doom correctly then it would have turned out similar to Painkiller.

Painkiller was an FPS that didn't need a storyline. It had the balls, it had the action, it had the atmosphere. The story was just extra. What was really important was to see how many monsters you could cut to pieces with the whirling blade thing or how many bad guys you could stick to the wall with your steak gun.

The boss battles were perfect. Giant monsters that took up the whole screen in a large arena...Perfect. The challenges were not annoying to complete at all, and the upgrades were awesome....Slowing down time and rapid fire were my favorite.

What don't present day game developers get about making a good FPS game? They need to re-play DOOM, Hexen, or DukeNukem3D as soon as possible and realize what they are missing.

Now, I'm not just making this blog to praise Painkiller. We should all do that in private. I'm creating this blog to show people that a NEW Painkiller game is coming out soon.

Bioshock is probably the most well thought out First Person Shooter I have ever come in contact with. The storyline is epic and the ideology of Ryan (the creator of Rapture) is a very nice portrait of how elites think and how their ideas drip down to the lower masses and infect them as well. You hear Ryan speaking of "Parasites" AKA poor and then when you fight the citizens of Rapture they have fallen victim to his crass elitism. The game mechanics are truly remarkable and filled with an almost endless amount of variety

. Weapons can be upgraded, Plasmids (Super Powers) can be upgraded, ammo can be invented, things can be hacked, and so on and so forth.

Flashbacks are common and it gives the player an uneasy feeling that they aren't being told something. There are hints within the NPC dialogues that something isn't what it seems and as the story unfolds twists and turns arise that can only be found in some kind of 1940's radio broadcast.

Now the graphics are wonderful. Problem is that because my game has no CD/DVD to read off of there is a lot of frame rate loss in the loading areas. Most of which are at doors when the frame rate drops significantly. The atmosphere of the game is remarkable and you really need a super charged computer to work this game properly. So if you have a PS3 or XBOX360 I would advise you to buy the console version because it doesn't run too well on PC.

The game has this early 1900 feel to it. Neon lights, retro futuristic architecture, even peoples accents come from the early 1900's. Except instead of playing a noir detective in New York your playing a stranger in an underwater city filled with insane people.

Disclaimer!! Spoilers!!!

So I have to admit that after Andrew Ryan died the games story took a nose dive. I don't know what it was really; maybe the voice actor of Andrew Ryan was so good that the other guy "Atlas" Frank Fontaine couldn't really match his performance. All in all, I have to hand it to them, it was a good twist in the storyline though but it just lost a lot of momentum. Andrew Ryan's elitist voice going on and on about parasites and the tyrannical hand of government really filled the game with his insane ideology and I like how all the people of Rapture were conditioned over the time they spent there to think just like him. I think towards the end of the game Frank Fontaine said it the best. "Everyone who came to Rapture thought they were going to be captains of industry but they forgot that there is always someone who has to scrub the toilets" Andrew Ryan catered to the elitist class and Fontaine catered to the poorer classes. They both used their social class to fight one another and in doing so, destroyed each other, the city, and were all driven mad while doing so..

Friday, September 18, 2009

First off, let me say that Amazon.com has amazing customer service. They really get the product to you fast and in the same condition it is advertised.

Ok, I was roaming around the internet a couple of days ago and I went over to Destructoid to check out the news and they had an article on how Amazon.com was having a super sale on the new game Cryostasis. So, Me being a sucker for sales I checked it out. It seems to be a $39.99 game and it was on sale for $12.99. I said sign me up! So I purchased it and it got to my house yesterday.

Now when I finally got into the game play I had this old familiar feeling. I couldn't place it until I got my first weapon (A heavy lock) which my character used as brass knuckles. Right then I new exactly what game I was dealing with. It seems to be a more detailed clone of Sega's Condemned: Criminal Origins. If you haven't played a game like this the way to describe it is that its not solely based on long range combat like many other FPS's, its more of a down and dirty, in your face, first person brawler. Like Condemned. At least in the beginning.

They did inject something new into this tired old genre. As you progress throughout the game you will come upon corpses that blink red. Kind of like if they had one of those lights that the cyclists use clipped on to them. Its funny the first time you see it because the corpses are lit up and blinking like Christmas trees in all these strange positions. So, you go over to them and right click and instantaneously you are transported into their past, playing as them, trying to change the events that led up to their demise.

For example: I found one dead body huddled up (blinking of course) by a door. When you click on him you are brought back to the situation that killed him and you have to run to the right, lock the door so that water doesn't flood the chamber and then use the broken handle from that same door you just came from to fit into the other door that is missing a handle. Then you open all the locks by using all the handles and you move through the door and its over. His soul is saved!

I like the mix of puzzle, creepiness, and action. Good stuff all around!

But Beware of the dreading SYSTEM REQUIRMENTS!......This PC game is for those who have tricked out their PC's. Don't get this if your computer has trouble running Pac-Man emulators.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

I thought it would be a good idea to show people how to translate a corporate media news article so we can all learn how to "read between the lines". We will be translating "The Way out of Afghanistan" by Fareed Zakaria. It's a misleading title because its actually a pro-war, pro-imperialistic article.

:Quote:The United States, NATO, the European Union, and other nations have invested massively in stabilizing the country over the past eight years, and they will not—and should not—abandon it

The most important reality of the post-9/11 world has been the lack of any major follow-up attack. That's happened largely because Al Qaeda has been on the run in Afghanistan and Pakistan. :End Quote:

Channeling the 9/11 myth and then stating that "Al-Qaeda" (US funded) is on the run. Where are they on the run? Pakistan. Why? Because Obama wanted to and HAS BEEN bombing Pakistan because they are allies with China.

:Quote:Were America to leave the scene, all the region's players would start jockeying for influence over Afghanistan. That would almost certainly mean the revival of the poisonous alliance between the Pakistani military and the hardest-line elements of the Taliban. :End Quote:

If we left that means that the Afghani's would have control over their own country again......What a Terrible idea, right? "Poisonous alliance" = fear mongering

:Quote:The number of civilian deaths, while grim, is less than a 10th the number in Iraq in 2006. In the recent election, all four presidential candidates publicly endorsed the U.S. presence there. Compare this to Iraq, where politicians engaged in ritual denunciations of the United States constantly, to satisfy the public's anti-Americanism. :End Quote:

The innocent deaths continue for no reason. Wars built on lies. the Afghani president was funded into power by the US. If the new candidates speak out against the US they may get shot or the funded may be stripped away.

:Quote:The Obama administration's answer to the worsening situation in the country appears to be: "more." More troops, civilians, tasks, and missions. There is nothing wrong with helping Afghans develop their country. But if the goal is to give Afghanistan a strong, functioning central government and a viable economy, the task will require decades, not years. :End Quote:

Translation = ENDLESS WAR, JOIN THE ARMY, ENDLESS IMPERIALISM

:Quote:The focus must shift from nation building to dealmaking. The central problem in Afghanistan is that the Pashtuns, who make up 45 percent of the country and almost 100 percent of the Taliban, do not feel empowered. We need to start talking to them, whether they are nominally Taliban or not. Buying, renting, or bribing Pashtun tribes should become the centerpiece of America's stabilization strategy, as it was Britain's when it ruled Afghanistan. :End Quote:

Great, use a British destabilization plan to bribe the Afghani people to shoot at our troops so we can loot their land. Wonderful idea.

:Quote:First, increase American troops. Second, increase Afghan troops. Third, shrink the number of enemy forces by making them switch sides or lay down their arms. That third strategy is what worked so well in Iraq and urgently needs to be adopted in Afghanistan. A few years from now, we can be sure that Afghanistan will still be poor, corrupt, and dysfunctional. But if we make the right deals, it will be ruled by leaders who keep the country inhospitable to Al Qaeda and terrorist groups like it. That's my definition of success. :End Quote:

Translation = Increased number of body bags, pay off Afghan troops to subjugate their own people, and shrink the number of civilians through Obama Predator drone attacks on villiages, wedding parties, friendly sports games, and all of this while siphoning all the natural resources and heroine away from their country.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Trials for the experimental H1N1 Swine flu vaccine commence Tuesday, September 15th in Thornton, Colorado. Novartis, a bio-pharmaceutical company that manufactures the vaccine, is recommending that children participating in the trial receive two doses of an experimental vaccine which contain ingredients found in spermicides, cleaners, and cosmetics along with thimerosal and squalene (MF59). Everyone should have a sense of concern as the only safety checks for these children are a few blood draws and follow-up phone calls. No neurological testing. No kidding.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

New YouTube video is up. Tackles the long standing official myth of 9/11 and brings up some seriously question on how this fantasy was used to single handedly destroy the USA and plunge it face first into a fascist police state.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Ok, So I finally got my fill of Highlander goodness and I'm just about ready to throw the new DVD's I bought on my shelf until the next time I feel the need for some sword fights and lighting storms but before I let it go I feel the need to share my experience with the Community.

I don't know why. I'm bored at work. Humor me.

So I got Highlander I (Directors Cut), Highlander III: The Final Dimension (Directors Cut) and the 2 DVD collectors edition of Highlander: Endgame (Also Directors cut)

A. We all know Highlander I. Great movie, cult classic. Clancey Brown is hardcore. Moving on. (See my article on Fantasy movies. Highlander is the first one I talk about)

B.

Highlander III

The only way I can describe this movie is that its a reboot. It's the Highlander franchises version of Escape from L.A. Its the same exact movie as the first one but told in a different way and given a few new twists. Namely, Kane's illusion power which I have to admit kept it somewhat fresh. Now I got the directors cut so you know what that means.....SHAMELESSLY EXTENDED SEX SCENE (is that a double entendre?? "extended"....whatever). Ugh! You would think that the prospect of seeing Debra Unger in action would make this scene a little more watch able but no.....absolutely not. Just skip it.

Other than that the movie does the Escape from L.A. cloned storylines like other reviewers have said in the past. Kane defeating Connors teacher (Kurgan killed Ramirez), Kane harassing his son in the car (Kurgan harassing Brenda from HL: I), and finally Kane mouthing off to Connor in a church (Kurgan mouthing off in a church). The scenes are the same but a little different. Which keeps in interesting. IMO.

C.

Highlander: Endgame

Now I must say they really brought some new ideas to the table in this one which I found very enjoyable. They finally bridged the gap between the Christopher Lambert movies and the Adrian Paul TV series. They gave some additional back story to the main characters and Bruce Payne (Jacob Kell) is a wonderful villain. Even rivaling Clancey Brown's Kurgan character from the original. Another thing that they injected in to the film was the premise of the "Posse" of immortals going around breaking the rules of the game and taking heads. This idea was first done in the TV series when the Hunters (Humans) would shoot up an immortal and then allow another immortal of their choosing to take their heads (I think it was called Unholy Alliance, 2 part episode, I watched it on Hulu). The other nice new twist would be that Jacob Kell really didn't want to take Connor's head. He wanted to torture him until they were the last two immortals AND THEN take his head. This is very different if you've ever seen the first and third movie because the main villains’ are always after Connor's powers. The last portion of the movie that I think they did a great job on was how Connor had to sacrifice himself in order to make Duncan strong enough to take Kell on. This was done very well and indicates the whole passing of the torch motif. Usually the mentors (before it was Ramirez, then the Sorcerer) both got killed by the main villain of the movie. However, in this one they gave it a nice little twist with Connor forcing Duncan to take his head. I don't know about you but I got a little teary eyed.

Ok, That was the good. Now the bad. In the behind the scene featurette they talked about how "large" the budget was for the film but you can tell right off the bat that this movie has a cheap feel to it. Not Sci-fi channel cheap but almost there.

Secondly, the Posse of immortals didn't really do anything in the movie other than get shot up in the first fight with the Watchers, fight Duncan Macloed half way through the movie, and then all of them get their heads cut off in this surreal anti-climactic last supper scene. I think they needed to get rid of them and they said "HEY! How about Jacon Kell just walks around the table lobbing off their hands while they just stand there!" BRILLIANT! I mean, come on, at least make them attempt to fight back so they can get completely owned by Jacob.

Thirdly, they blatantly reused a fight scene in the final battle and I mean BLATANTLY. They are fighting through .....you guesses it.....another abandoned factory when all of a sudden Duncan and Jacob do the same exact fight movements from 5 minutes ago. This pissed me off a lot because the fight choreography looked good the first time they did it but when they literally replayed it again to lengthen the end battle it took away from its original goodness.

Hope you enjoyed my retrospective. I think the movies aren't as bad as people make them out to be. Just have fun with it and take them with a grain of salt.

Friday, September 11, 2009

So, I was laying in bed around 10:30pm tired from a long day of corporate serfdom when I came to the startling realization that I had been ignoring the millions of subscribers to my Youtube channel. So I shrugged off the fatigue, sprung up out of bed, put my headphones on, and started talking. The episode is entitles "The News!". It is a compilation of news articles that I've been posting on the political thread in the Sega-16 forums. There is a lot of eye opening information and commentary to be found in this new video with some very nice picture if I say so myself! Thank you, Ixquick search engine! http://www.ixquick.com/

If you feel like taking a gander at it then take a stroll over to my Youtube channel: TheCoolinator1

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

It is 9/9/09 and today marks the 10th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast. Since the beginning consoles have attempted to bring the real arcade experience into peoples homes but it wasn't perfected until the Sega Dreamcast hit shelves on 9/9/99 !

This little white box had one of the greatest and most creative software libraries in the history of gaming and years after it was orphaned by Sega games are continuing to be developed and produced for it.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

I guess people don't care or even notice that their world is literally being turned into one giant slave grid. Just recently near where I live they have installed Red Light Camera's on a road where no one has EVER ran the red light. In all the years of driving up and down this town road I have not once seen anyone getting pulled over but like magic the town "officials" had this wonderful plan to put in red light cameras at this and many other intersections across the our county.

It makes me sick.

Everyone knows we are in an economic depression, so why I ask, would the people we elect to help us go and install a piece of machinery that is created for the sole purpose of robbing the general population out of money they can't afford to lose? It boggles the mind. To make matters worse we have a police force that might as well have been trained by a pack of medieval bandits. If you get pulled over now a days you will either get tazered to death or they will throw a bag of drugs in your back seat and steal your car. Now, Where I live there are no town hall meetings, nor is there any way to get in contact with your representative or legislator. Its almost as if these people they are sitting on a cloud somewhere on top of a huge mountain that no one would ever dare to climb in the first place. These "officials" are more elusive then giant squids. The public is getting screwed from sun up to sun down, seven days a week, and they continue to get squeezed with a smile on their face. Its unbelievable.

Lets go down the list....shall we?

1. Most Police are trained to be gang members instead of public servants and the ones in suburban areas are over paid by about 50%. They feed on the public while being guard dogs for wealthy criminals.

City and Urban Police excluded: They are getting the shaft worse then us and they have to put their lives on the line everyday for a measley paycheck and more and more dangerous assignments.

2. Red Light Camera. We are delegating the power of law enforcement over to a robot that can malfunction, could be programmed incorrectly, or has been purposely programmed incorrectly to raise revenue so it can be siphoned out and deposited right back in the coffers of other state and local "Officials".

3. No end to absurdly high property taxes. How much does a family need to pay in a state like New York or California? Some people are actually paying 10,000 to 12,000 dollars a year JUST in property taxes alone. Where is that money going to? AND why? It's getting to the point where people are going to have to start moving to rural areas just to evade these outrageous taxes.

4. The systematic destruction of the middle class. This is the most chilling, horrendous, and counterproductive thing I have ever been privy to in my life. The combination of "free trade" agreements and the lack of labor support in this country is disgraceful. These people WANT a population that is wage slaves. They WANT a population who are afraid to ask questions and fight for their living wage. They WANT to destroy labor organizations and finally they WANT to convert high salary property owners into LOW WAGE PROPERTY-LESS MASSES. This is not a theory, this is a fact. Look around you. College graduates with Masters Degrees are working in coffee houses. We have doctors working at Wal-mart and Target. We have people who are so afraid of losing their jobs they continue to take more and more of a work load for the same amount of money.

We all need to wake up now. Its time to face reality. To understand who are the real enemies. Not the Blue team. Not the Red Team. Not the hippies, soulless capitalists, or the queers. The enemy is WALLSTREET. The enemy is financial oligarchs. We must regain consciousness and be aware of such dangers instead of stumbling through life as hedonistic cretins.

FIGHT. FIGHT FOR YOUR ECONOMIC RIGHTS. There are no fruits without struggle.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Since I’ve been somewhat of a downer lately I felt that I should write an upbeat post that shines a spotlight on some of the greatest feel good fantasy films of all time. The good old days before CGI ruined the media world.

Now I know what you’re thinking, Fantasy Movies usually are stigmatized as either really nerdy or really girlie but my dear friends you must understand that the oldest and greatest stories ever penned were fantasy in concept. The hero’s journey has been around since the dawn of man and has been retold time and time again throughout a multitude of different cultures across the face of the world. As simple as this formula is it is timeless and resonates with all of us because we too have encountered the hero's journey in our own lives and probably haven’t even noticed!

The Hero’s Journey:

The Call to AdventureAccepting the JourneyTeacher coming down from the mountainThe Ordeal&The Triumphant Return

Just from memory I'm going to pick a few movies that I’ve seen in my life and talk about the impressions they made on me and what special messages I believe were hidden within them.

Let's begin!

Highlander

Recently I created a thread on the SpoonyExperiment.com forums regarding the Highlander series. The original movie was an epic adventure filled to the brim with swordfights, immortals, and large supernatural electrical storms but other than all the flashy special effects the movie touches upon a timeless motif.

Immortality

Since the beginning of time Human's have been attempting to make sense of their environment. How they would do this was to categorize all the elements and emotions they felt and anthropomorphize them into one specific deity. This deity of course would be immortal and embody their specified element (Earth, water, fire, wind, lightning, etc), emotion (love, jealousy, hatred, happiness, etc), or vocation (Medicine, blacksmithing, war, hunting, etc). In the movie Highlander however we see that the immortals have no power other than their universal immunity to death, unless of course they are decapitated. In an odd way they are similar to the Gorgans's from the ancient story of Perseus. All of them are semi-immortal unless their heads are separated from their bodies. The premise is gruesome but somewhat feasible if you think about it long enough.

Another idea which is taken from different stories throughout the ages is the battle of good and evil. It’s never said out loud but the personalities of Connor and his adversary Kurgan are polar opposites in every way. Connor is kind and thoughtful while Kurgan is a violent sociopath. The world of the immortals gets even more intriguing because they live among regular people but sadly have trouble taking part do to their long lives and sterility (all immortals seemed to be sterile until the newest Highlander movie "The Source" where it was shown that they can impregnate women some how..... but who cares about the Highlander sequels, they are all screwed up beyond recognition anyway), so by nature they are outcasts.

If you have already seen this movie and want some more immortal sword fighting action I would suggest giving the TV series a try. It really dives deeper into the world of immortals, the battles they fight, and how they interact within society.

Willow

Right from the beginning the movie draws inspiration from the biblical story of Moses. A woman who is holding a baby is being pursued and as a last ditch effort so save the child she sends it down stream. Luckily for the child it gets picked up by a nearby village of little people. I guess you can call them Hobbits, or dwarves, but in this specific movie they are called Pecks. I think? Peck may be a derogatory word used to describe them but I’m drawing a blank right now so it will have to do. They however are a good people who survive through agriculture and seem to be at peace with the land. After the baby is found by the main character (Willow) and his family they discuss about what to do with the child. The child is not of their race and must be brought to the council so that the elder can decide on what do to with it. This part in the story is known as the call to adventure because the Elder picks Willow to be the person to deliver the child to a nearby Human village. From there it the story goes on an exciting journey throughout their world. Chock full of Evil Sorceresses, a Skull Knight (General Kael!), and a multitude of other characters that really make the experience enjoyable. Mad Martigan is the typical Han Solo-ish character that starts out as an opportunist and as the movie progresses transforms into the white knight of the film. There are some very interesting supporting characters and different kinds of entities that draw the viewer deep within their world .

This is a very good movie and I must insist that all of you reading this should go and see it for yourselves. It is one of the last great fantasy films of all time. You shouldn’t miss it!

Krull

The world of Krull is a magnificent place. The environment is truly pristine and the inhabitants are colorful and pleasant. There is however an antagonist of mass proportions terrorizing the land. His name is the Beast and he commands an army of armored soldiers called Slayers who are equipped with weapons that are far superior to whatever the Krullites wield. The Beast is described as an all powerful entity who travels from world to world conquering the lands and doing what he pleases with the populations. The movie begins with Cowyln and Lyssa’s marriage to unite the kingdoms and from what it looks like after years of slayer onslaughts there isn’t that much left of either fiefdoms. As the wedding ceremony is about to be completed the slayers attack with a almost unstoppable power. They swarm the castle, grab Lyssa, and haul her back to the Beasts castle which seems to resemble a giant out of place mountain. To make matters worse this castle has the ability to teleport anywhere the Beast pleases and Cowyln is shot to pieces and has to be nursed back to health by the wise old hermit Ynyr. This is the mentor motif. An old sage of some sort who comes down from the mountain to bestow his knowledge on the up and coming hero. The movie Highlander had this as well with the teacher known as Ramirez (Sean Connery). Unfortunately most mentors tend to have short life spans after assisting their hero and meet their demise half way through the story. To make a long story short Cowyln who is commanded by Ynyr to find the “Glaive” which is an awesome weapon that looks like a gold five pointed star with blades that come out of the points. Its very well made and just to see it in action towards the end of the movie is well worth the wait. Now a lot of people were critical of how the weapon is used at the end but I for one thought it was done very well and I will explain why. The Glaive is supposed to embody power while love is represented in the form of fire. If you have seen the movie it’s a little easier to understand but it all comes together from one quote from the film.

“Power is fleeting, Love is eternal”

The reason why this cryptic message is so important is because the glaive (Power) is not strong enough to defeat the beast. Yes, it is used in many other important tasks within the Beast’s castle but it falls short of finishing the job. Only the fire (Love) of Lyssa and Cowyln together can vanquish the evil Beast and send him back into the void of space.

This is a very powerful movie and I remember searching for it forever before picking up the VHS (which I still own). It’s an amazing story that brings a message of how friendship and love is important to vanquish the evil and vices in ones life.

So ends this posting. I hope you have all enjoyed it and if you haven’t seen the movies I listed about please find time to watch them at least once. They are films that are very well made and have yet to be matched by any present day works.

Just wanted to spread the word about my three new videos, as I said in my previous post I will continue my comments on the present day situations that effect us all, like always you can find them on my YouTube channel: TheCoolinator1.

I must apologize though they are not edited. I accidentally exported them immediately after I was finished so its all raw footage.

The third video is called “Fight the Power” and consists of me critiquing some present day personality disorders that I've observed in some of the people I have come across in my life and a slight recap on my “Individuality” video about how one must stand for something and truly embody the morals and standards which they live by.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

It's been a week now since I've last posted on YouTube. Its not that I ran out of subject matter its more along the lines that I don't think its interesting to most people. I think my newest article on this blog spot summed up my reaction the other day when I concluded that more people would go to a Video Game or Comic Book convention then an Anti-War march or political protest. It was very disheartening to have to face.

All of these smiling faces buying this entertainment fluff, living in the fantasy, living on the ecstasy but missing something much more important....................REALITY.

This is why I have came to the realization that I must continue my work on YouTube, Continue to inject the harsh cold reality on to the web. People need to be shocked out of this dream they live in. To a world that is a lot darker, a world that doesn't revolve around Video game or Movie reviews but of wars, oligarchs, and crazed eugenicists. Call me crazy but that’s a lot more entertaining then any of the mediocre fluff out there today.

Monday, August 24, 2009

I never thought in my life that I would have to live through another Vietnam. At first I tried to compare it to Desert Storm 1 as an example but that skirmish didn't linger half as long as the nightmare that perpetuates on a daily basis in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Pakistan.

What's the reason for this article?

Well, I'm sick and tired of seeing mountains of fluff and entertainment. Yes, I do them as well but I also know how to balance them with the cold hard ugly reality that we need to gaze into every once in a while.

I guess the next question I should ask myself would be why do I care?

No one else does. People love to wave around their chinese made American flags and drink beer and obsess about their material posessions. Well I'm not going to be like that, I remember the first time the war(s) hit home for me. I turned on the television and we saw the portraits of dead soldiers recently blown to bits in the pointless wars. The same wars that were built on paranoia and lies. Most of the visages I let pass by without even glancing at their once smiling faces until just then a young blonde haired boys mug centered on the screen. Until this very day I hear the media announcer stating his age as his face continued to stare back at me through the television screen.

21 years old......21 years old...... the voice echoed.

I was twenty one as well at the time and for some reason I put myself in his position. I pictured myself shot to pieces in some desert wasteland by a bunch of Iraqi people that didn't want us there to begin with. I saw the anger in their faces of what we were doing to them, bombs dropping on suburban areas, my troops and private mercenary groups shooting civilians for no reason. Then I pictured the black rubber body bag bring zipped around me and the bouncing around on the cargo deck of a plane heading back home. To the land of the free. I didn't stop there either. I went even farther with my thoughts. I pictured my mother in pain and misery looking at me inside the shiny casket. The child which she once gave birth to dead prematurely because of lies....... because of deceit........ because of greed of the wealthy war profiteers.

I still hold those feeling with me every time I come home. Every time I see my father screaming at the TV because he disagrees with the news reporter. Every time I see my Mother cooking dinner. I then think of the Fathers and Mothers of the children who were led to the slaughter because Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, GE, Halliburton, Blackwater, and now Obama wanted to make a profit off the Human sufferage. I sometimes think of Colin Powell holding up the fake "anthrax" vial and shaking it around as if Saddam Hussein the nefarious substance at his disposal. I think of how President Bush kept envoking the 9/11 myth over and over again to fool the American people into fighting a war of imperialism. How they played upon their irrationality, their emotional weakness convince them to offer up themselves and their children on the to alter for the good of corporate monopolies.

It still continues to this day. Obama is no different. He promised an end to the war but then starts a new one with Pakistan. Obama's predator drones are the bane of peaceful Pakistani villages all over the country. Civilians are prey for our souless flying machines. Commanded cynically by some brainwashed 19 year old service member in some far off air conditioned bunker.

I now invite all of you to look at Mrs. Sheehans website and continue the anti-war sentiments until this useless chaos stops. Please visit the link below and realize that Obama and Bush are controlled by the same people. The same people who killed that 21 year old soldier and ruined the lives of his family.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

2. Expand medicaid and allow it to compete with the private sector. This will allow us (the people) to pick which one we want.

Mandatory federal law - Medicaid & Private Medical Insurance companies CANNOT deny care for any reason what so ever. If the people are continuing to pay into the program they will receive proper care. No hoops to jump through, No strings attached. Medicaid workers & Private Medical insurance workers WHO DENY CARE will go to jail. 5-10 year jail time for those who deny care. They should consider themselves lucky. The Nuremberg Trials would have them hanged.

3. Repeal Nafta, Cafta, GAT. All free trade agreements must end.

4. Seize the privately run federal reserve. Make them a part of the US Treasury and immediately start pumping low interest loans into production centered jobs.

5. Cap CEO salaries at $300,000.

6. Disassemble the CIA, Homeland Security, and FEMA. These are parasitical government organizations that do NOTHING but cause trouble around the world (CIA), Encroach upon Civil Liberties (Homeland Security), and are incompetent when managing natural disaster relief (FEMA). They are a waste of our money and should be erased. The people who are laid off can get jobs from the new production based job sector.

9. Leave all wars and military bases from around the world. The wars a fake. Based on profit and enough men and women have died for nothing. Bring them home to their family and get them the medical and psychiatric help they need. End all torture concentration camps for "military combatants" and allow them to have speedy PUBLIC trials. Torturers will be tried in a court of law and held to the standards set by the Geneva Convention and Nuremberg laws.

11.Mandatory federal Law - OUTLAW Derivatives, "instruments", "exotic" investments. AIG, Goldman saches, JPmorgan chase, citibank, and numerous other banks are BANKRUPT and should be seized and their Derivative books erased. They should not be given trillions of dollars from our friends from the privately run federal reserve and their puppet Bush and now Obama. Reenact the Glass-Steagal Act and Uptick rule. TAX Wallstreet. 1% Tobin tax on Wallstreet turnovers. Funnel that money into industry and public works.

12. Stop forclosures on victims of predatory loans. Buy up all the bad mortgages and re-adjust their insterest rates to keep these people in their homes.

Mandatory Federal Law - Predatory adjustable rate mortgages are here by banned. Any persons caught making a predatory loan will serve a minimum of 5 years in jail . A bank which forecloses on any house during this depressionary era will be fined heavily and or jail time for high ranking board members / CEO's.

Monday, August 17, 2009

As we discussed in previous articles there has been a wave of backlash from the gaming community. We have three consoles on the market and the only one that has shown to sell in great numbers can be found collecting dust underneath a television or still in its original box. The others are either broken half the time or are still on the store shelves.

What has moved me to write this post is the foreboding nature of the present financial circumstances of Sony's latest console .....................the PS3.

Since its creation Sony has bet the farm on this huge black box. Just like its predecessor it doubles as another media device. A fancy Blue-Ray player. Now this is all fine and dandy in theory but who do you know that has a Blue-Ray player? And if they do own one, How many Blue-Ray movies do they own? I would think not many if any at all.

So where are we now? Well since a year and a half ago Sony has officially lost over 2 billion dollars on their new device. This a huge financial blow to this once technological giant. Every quarter that goes by Sony loses more that a hundred million dollars on their creation. Now that is just the profits, dear friends. Sony has had to let go over 20-30 percent of their workforce just in their gaming department. I ask. How long can they last? And that’s what brings me to this poorly written article that was posted earlier today in the Sega of America forums. An ironic place to have a conversation about bankruptcy and financial problems.

Immediately after reading it I made the comparison, the PS3 is the new Sega Saturn. It all came together so clearly now. The two systems are literally identical in terms of financial short comings. The sales for both are quite depressing and the system is not only hard to develop for but overpriced.

Now if you think that I'm being to harsh on the PS3 and Wii and not to the XBOX360 I must say that Microsofts console does fair much better. Yes, some gamers prefer the XBOX360 to the Wii and PS3 but I can tell you right now that consumer confidence in the XBOX brand has almost been chiseled to nothing. Microsoft is going to have an extremely tough time making sales whenever the new XBOX console comes out. People are not happy that their expensive new age gaming console can be turned into a hunk of useless plastic and circuits just because the temperature in the room goes up 2 degrees.

So is Sony out of the race? You would think me being a die hard Sega Fan I would scoff at this news but in all honesty I feel somewhat upset. I don't want Sony to go out like this. I feel that they did so well with the PS2. Yes, their games weren't as colorful, entertaining, or creative as some Dreamcast games but I still think it’s a good system none the less. I still have my second PS2 (first one broke) and I'm quite pleased with the variety of games I still have for it.

Now at the end of the article the writer muses that Sony may end up like Sega. A publisher of software after calling it quits in the hardware arena. Its completely understandable why Sega went down for the count. The trail of mismanagement was blatant and obvious. The 32X, Nomad, Sega Saturn. The Sega train ran out of coal right after the second year of the Dreamcast. Sony doesn't seem to have a beaten trail of folly like Sega had, what they had was bad luck. It was a gamble to them and they came up short. They bet it all on red and the roulette wheel turned up black. From an Electronics company that wiped the floor with the veteran video game corporations like Nintendo and Sega to a ravaged hulk a drift on the oceans of debt and misery.

I can't imagine what can come next but we all know that there is no Hope & Change in this economy. People don't have the time nor the money to invest on a new console and a $60 dollar game every pay check. People are saving, their using their money to pay off bills, pay off debt, medical costs, food, electric, oil, gas. The farthest thing from the peoples mind right now is to buy a giant black block to put it in their living room to collect dust because they can't afford the software.

Now who is to blame? The people?

No.

The Sony Employees?

No.

The Sony executives, CEO, and Board Members?

I guess. If blame needed to be hung around the neck of anyone it must be them. They are the decision makers. They are the signers of contracts and the designers of products.

Will they lost their jobs?

Probably not. They don't care if the company burns to the ground. They signed their contract. Its the little people that work for them that will suffer.

This is a lesson that everyone should take heed. The detach of upper management from the ground levels and consumer wants causes needless havoc. Not researching how much the average person is willing to buy and allowing Olympian like corporate elites to decide the life and death of an company only ends in disaster.

Note to all hardware manufacturers. Listen to your fans and ask them what they want.....and for what price they are willing to spend.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

For You and Your Family! Organic foods are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilizers or genetically engineered ingredients.For the Planet! Organic Farming helps keep air, water, and soil clean by not using synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilizers.It's Easy! There are many organic options to choose from.

What is organic?

Organic refers to the way agricultural products and foods are grown and processed. Organic production is based on a system of farming that maintains and replenishes soil fertility without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers. To maintain the integrity of the final product, organic foods are minimally processed without artificial ingredients, preservatives, or irradiation. The "organic" food label identifies food grown with practices that:

Don't use synthetic pesticides, herbicides and soil fumigants.

Don't use genetic engineering

Don't use sewage sludge as fertilizer

Do improve the quality and fertility of the soil

Do protect water quality

Do reduce soil erosion

Do rely on natural biological systems for pest and weed control

Do reduce the impact of agriculture on our environment

Do produce high quality, great tasting food

do the terms "natural" and "organic" mean the same thing?No. According to the USDA, the terms "natural" and "organic" are not interchangeable. Only food labeled "organic" meets USDA's national organic standards. While other claims, such as "natural," "free-range," and "hormone-free," can still appear on food labels these terms should not be confused with "organic."

Is organic food better for consumers and the environment?

By eating organic foods, you limit your exposure to synthetic insecticides, fungicides and herbicides, because these chemicals are not applied to organic crops. Additionally by eating organic foods, you limit your intake of growth hormones and antibiotics, because organic meat and dairy farmers are prohibited from using hormones and antibiotics in organic livestock and dairy production. Finally by eating organic foods, you limit your intake of genetically modified foods because organic farmers cannot raise genetically modified crops or livestock or use production aids that are genetically modified. Organic farming methods help provide a safer, more healthy environment by: 1) not polluting our groundwater, rivers, lakes, and oceans with synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers; 2) reducing soil erosion; 3) improving soil quality; 4) increasing the diversity of wildlife on and near farms; and 5) not exposing farm workers to synthetic pesticides.

When I go to the supermarket, how can I tell organically produced food from conventionally produced food?

On October 21, 2002, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) put into effect the national organic standards ensuring consistency for all organic products marketed in the U.S. Along with the new standards, the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has developed strict labeling rules to help consumers know the exact organic content of the food they buy. The "USDA Organic" seal helps you find products that contain at least 95 percent certified organic ingredients.You'll find four labeling categories when looking for organic products in stores and markets: 100 percent Organic: All of the product's content is certified organic. These products may display the USDA Organic seal on the label. Organic: At least 95 percent of the product's content is certified organic. These products may also display the USDA Organic seal on the label. These products contain some minor ingredients that are not certified organic, such as minerals and vitamins. Made with Organic Ingredients: At least 70 percent of the product's content is certified organic. Up to three ingredients can be listed on the label with the phrase "made with organic." Products containing less than 70 percent organic content may only identify the organic ingredients in the ingredient listing on the label.

Will I find the USDA Organic seal on all organic products?

No. The use of the USDA Organic seal is voluntary. And the USDA Organic seal can only be used on products with at least 95 percent certified organic ingredients.

The national organic regulations:prohibit the use of irradiation, sewage sludge, or genetically modified organisms in organic food productionreflect the National Organic Standards Board recommendations on the allowable materials for use by organic farmers, organic livestock producers, and organic processorsrequire organic farmers to demonstrate soil quality improvementprohibit antibiotics and growth hormones in organic meat and poultryrequire 100% organic feed for organic livestock

Should I be concerned about the safety of eating organic food?

Certified organic farmers and processors follow strict food safety guidelines to assure safe and hygienic food production. All food producers, including organic farmers and processors, must comply with local, state and federal health standards. In addition to these health and safety standards, organic farmers and processors are also required to comply with the stringent requirements included in USDA's national organic regulations.These more stringent food standards include restrictions on application of raw manure to soil; organic audit trail requirement; organic farm plan requirement; organic handling plan requirement; prohibition of synthetic pesticide use; prohibition of GMO (genetically modified organism) use; prohibition of food irradiation; and prohibition of chemical food processing methods.

What does the organic industry do to ensure safe and wholesome food production?

Certified organic farmers and processors are inspected annually by an independent, USDA accredited certification agent. During the annual inspection, the certification agent verifies compliance with the national organic regulations and reviews the food safety practices of organic growers and processors. This helps assure that organic producers are in compliance with all local, state, and federal health standards and with the more stringent requirements included in the USDA's national organic regulations.